Adapting central RDM messages to discipline-specific needs at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge

Abstract

The University of Cambridge established its Office of Scholarly Communication (OSC) in 2015 (http://osc.cam.ac.uk/). Since then it has developed many services to support Research Data Management (RDM), including a central website, RDM training and support, and a data repository. It communicates with researchers and support staff including librarians and administrators across the University using a variety of methods. It has also had direct discussions with researchers, and carries out structured interviews and surveys, in a bottom-up approach to RDM which engages with researchers, combined with a top-down, policy-driven approach (Teperek, Higman and Kingsley, 2017). There is therefore a considerable amount of outreach into departments and faculties where research takes place. However, its resources are limited: it is not possible for it to deliver RDM training in every department or faculty in the University, for example.

Most departments and faculties have an embedded library service, which is discipline-specific. Librarians in the University are in a key position to be able to collaborate with the OSC and their own researchers in developing and implementing RDM services locally. This paper presents a case study of how centralised RDM services have been rolled out in the Department of Chemistry, thus adapting the central RDM messages to discipline-specific needs. I will begin by introducing the Department of Chemistry and the OSC and the centralised RDM services it offers to researchers. I will then cover my role as the Chemistry Department Librarian in delivering RDM training, and my involvement in the Data Champions programme (http://www.data.cam.ac.uk/intro-data-champions). I will describe the outcomes of this for the Department of Chemistry, and for the centralised service.

Finally, I will outline future developments in the Department of Chemistry regarding RDM services offered in collaboration with the OSC.

Reference: Is Democracy the Right System? Collaborative Approaches to Building an Engaged RDM Community [https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v12i2.561].